But that would only give me super-similar variations of “YouTube SEO”.

(And as you can see, most of these variations have really low search volume)

Instead, I logged into BuzzSumo and typed “YouTube SEO” into the Question Analyzer:

And I got a list of questions that people asked about that topic:

One particular question stood out right away: “How to rank youtube videos?”:

My post answered that question. But it wasn’t optimized around that term.

So I added a shortened version of that long tail keyword to my title tag:

And it quickly hit the #1 spot for that long tail keyword:

Which helped boost monthly organic traffic to that page by 23.49%.

Not bad.

Hack Facebook’s News Feed WithFacebook Analyzer

There’s no doubt about it:

It’s harder than ever to get your Facebook posts to appear in your follower’s NewsFeeds.

But there’s a simple way to get around this problem: BuzzSumo’s Facebook Analyzer.

This tool shows you content that’s working right now on Facebook.

That way, you can easily replicate unicorn posts that actually get organic reach.

For example…

Let’s say you run a Paleo diet blog.

You’d do a search for “Paleo”:

And you’ll see the exact Paleo-related posts that got the most interactions over that time period.

Pro Tip: Set the date range for “Past 6 Months” or “Past Month”.

By default, BuzzSumo shows you content from the past 24 hours, which is an extremely small timeframe. So it’s important to set those filters so you’re seeing content that’s done well over the last few months.

If you want to dig deeper, hit “Analyze Trends”:

This will show you what the most successful Facebook posts have in common (in terms of format, length, publishing time, and more).

For example, in the Paleo diet space, videos CRUSH other post formats:

You can also use this feature to analyze a specific Facebook page. That way, you can see what’s working for your direct competitors.

Get More Results From Your Content With“Content Analysis”

So you’ve found a proven topic.

Great.

The question is: what do you actually write?

Well, no tool is going write a post for you.

(AI is good, but not that good… yet 🙂)

That said, BuzzSumo’s “Content Analysis” can help you write stuff that actually works.

I’ll show you how this works with an example…

A while back I was sitting down to write my mobile SEO guide.

I already had an idea of how to structure and write the post.

But I used “Content Analysis” to make sure my content would actually work.

First, I looked at what content type worked best for this topic.

And sure enough, “How-to Articles” did best:

Which was PERFECT because I planned on writing a how-to guide.

I also noticed that longer content about mobile SEO performed best (in terms of social shares):

I tend to publish long content anyway. But it was nice to get confirmation that longer content worked well for this particular topic.

So…

Publishing content based on proven topics and formats already puts you ahead of 90% of your competitors.

But as you probably know, hitting the “publish” button is only the first step.

To get your content to the first page of Google in 2018, you need to actively promote it.

That’s where Chapter 2 comes into play…

Chapter 2:Find Influencers

You already know that a single share from an influencer can put your content on the map.

But how do you find them?

Well, BuzzSumo has some pretty nifty features that make finding your industry’s movers and shakers an absolute cinch.

And in this chapter I’ll show you exactly how to use them.

Find Influencers With a Keyword Search

This is by far the easiest way to find influential people in a specific niche.

Pop in a keyword… and get a list of peeps that write about that topic.

Note: BuzzSumo only searches Twitter bios. So if an influencer doesn’t use your search term in their Twitter bio, they won’t show up.

For example, if you search for “link building”, my Twitter profile won’t show up because I don’t have that term in my Twitter bio:

That said, a keyword search is still a great way to start building an influencer list.

And once you’ve gone through the results, it’s time to…

Use “Search Content Shared” to Discover Influencers

At the end of the day, the goal of content promotion is to get someone to share YOUR content with THEIR audience.

That share can be in the form of a Facebook post. Or a link.

Either way, you need to get your content in front of people that are likely to share it.

And the best way to do that?

Use “Search Content Shared”.

Instead of searching through Twitter bios, this feature reveals people that have recently shared content on your topic.

I have been using BuzzSumo for a long time but never discovered this much in depth. I am glad you have shown most of us the amazing insight of this secret tool for finding the best content ideas out there.

You’re welcome, Kaavish. I’ve also been using BuzzSumo for a while (pretty much since it came out). And over the years I’ve picked up a few tips that have helped me get the most out of it. So I decided to share them in today’s guide.

Hey Brian,
Thank you so much for this amazing guide. I have a quick question. I use ahrefs since 2016. Is it a good idea to switch to BuzzSumo? Your guide me think about it. Thank you!
Qasim Khilji
Phoenix, Arizona

You’re welcome. It really depends. Ahrefs is more for keyword research, backlink analysis and other SEO-focused tasks. BuzzSumo is more content-focused. I personally use both but it depends on what your goals are right now.

Awesome Post Brian! Buzzsumo is an awesome tool for finding the popular content topics. But the problem is many don’t know how to use it right. Even many times I get confuse which topics should I choose.

Yes, Ahrefs has added some cool features and their content explorer is cool. Moreover, you can find who is ranking for the particular topics, therefore, you can create better content than your competitor to outrank them.

Always enjoy your content. This is just loaded with goodies. Looking forward to diving into the meat of this when me and my team get the time. Thanks for the good info and keep up the good work, Brian!

This is AWESOME, thanks for putting so much detail into this! I really found Buzzsumo a bit of a black hole so it’s great to see how you use it.

That being said… I know you use Ahrefs too – any thoughts on their new content explorer? It seems to do a lot more than Buzzsumo in terms of SEO and although it doesn’t do questions at all (yet…) you can get it to mimic the functionality of Buzzsumo’s FB analyzer by sorting by FB shares. Although it doesn’t necessarily do some of the content analysis stuff (type of content that performs best, etc.) I guess the question is if you think the same opportunities are findable through Ahrefs.

Would be great to hear any thoughts you might have – can only afford so many tools 😛

Aherf’s Content Explorer is solid. But like you said, it’s not as feature-rich as BuzzSumo. I hear you: Ahrefs and BuzzSumo together aren’t super cheap. At the end of the day, it’s whatever system/tool works best for you. And it sounds like you figured out how to get the most out of Content Explorer.

I just read this in one go – I’ve never really dug deep with BuzzSumo before but I’m definitely going to revisit it after this. I’m thinking a combination of Ahrefs and this would be immense together – and all you really need.

It’s also great to see an example from Andrew Holland in here. He really knows his stuff and is always very positive and helpful in the SEO That Works FB Group – and those are some massive results he’s been getting.

There’s just one thing I’m unsure on though – when using the Question Analyser, how did you know your long-tail keyword addition of ‘how to rank youtube videos’ would get a lot of organic traffic – just by virtue of being there – e.g. 45 people were asking questions related to it so that was a good enough gauge?

I’m with you Brian. As a long time users. I’ve used some of the tricks you mention, mostly for content creation for myself and my clients. But haven’t been use for reachout and link building opportunity. Thanks

Bad thought about this thread: How much your competitors would have paid him to create this shit? (just thinking)
Good thought about this thread: Thanks for knowledge & trust I’ve gained from you that I quickly identified that above thread is “FAKE or PAID”

Brian Dean, First of all, thanks for your hard work. I still just check how much longer this content is so I would schedule my time to go for that great buzzsumo guide.
I am searching yesterday for new keywords via ahref but now I would love to read this guide before writing any further articles.

Good question, Jacob. I actually use all 3 of those tools pretty much every day because they all complement one another. BuzzSumo is great, but it’s not made to do things that Ahrefs can do (like link analysis) or SEMRush (like keyword research).

Till the time before reading this article from my inbox, I knew Buzzsumo as for finding content ideas. But after reading entire article, I am really surprised that Buzzsumo can be used like this. Thanks for sharing. It’s a worth read epic article.

Last week I recommended one of my friend to read your guides and seo posts. Before he was struggling a lot to rank his post. But when he read yours he instatntly bost his traffic to more than 64%.
Also read your Buzzsumo post, I specially liked the examples which you gave of other people.

Awesome post, one of the most detailed guides about SEO tricks I’ve read so far. However, you forgot to mention in the post an important thing, most of the tools you have described are available only in a paid version of BuzzSumo, and in my opinion, prices for their premium packages are too high for average users.

But besides that, still great text, full of useful tips and phenomenal real life examples, thank you for your work and for sharing all of this gold worth tips and information’s.

Content marketing and SEO can be a killer combination, but it seriously takes some pinpointed steps to make sure your content is original, relevant and optimized so that it ends up on top. Having access to buzzsumo doesn’t mean that you actually know how to use it to its fullest extent. Buzzsumo is a unique collection of data specifically built to benefit marketers, but it still the takes creativity of the marketer to use the tool well. I learned a TON I didn’t know about how to do that from reading this guide. Thanks a ton!

One more thing is important other than seo. When i read this complete blog post, it feels someone is explaining me with all details. I didn’t feel that i’m reading a blog post and it feels like someone is talking.

I like this style of writing a content, very conversational type. This will help me lot. Now i will be following you on linkedin to get latest updates about the blog.

I hope you don’t mind me posting a slightly off topic commment – but this is the no 1 obvious problem that is driving me crazy,
and I suspect there are tons of people who have the same issue.

Hopefully if you reply it will help others too.

At what point do you give away too much free content?

I run a site (just relaunched) about helping men to acheive dating success.

I have 2 products, a 408 page book and a 5 hour video course.

I could write literally millions of words about getting more dating sucess but I am concerned that I would give away the farm in doing so.

If I write / podcast extensively with the level of detail that seems to be required nowadays to rank in Google, I’d end up giving away everything that I actually want my customers to pay for.

I’m about to release post a 10,000 word article about the 20 best cities in the world for single men. It only lightly touches upon the actual HOW to attract women.

But it’s not easy to skirt around the subjects, so to speak.

Apologies for the off topic comment but I don’t want to reply to your newsletter with a demanding email. If there’s a simple way around it I’d love to know! I’m happy to write reams of content and make videos but at the end of the day I do want to get paid.

PS Your site is amazing. I have gained a ton of value from reading your stuff, alongside Neil Patel and Matthew Woodward. Thankyou!!!

PPS I really don’t like the idea of monetising with adsense or dodgy “grow your member” products!

Steve, my take is: create a product that includes your absolute best material. And never share that stuff publicly. Then, do what you’re doing: create helpful content that doesn’t overlap with what’s in your paid products.

Finally, I’m done reading the whole post. It takes time when you’ve to follow along 😉
Well, I was using Buzzsumo but not making the best possible use of it. But now I’ve got some real powers in hand 🙂
Brian, every post you crafts are awesome worth sharing. Case studies you talk about are really enjoyable and motivates forward.
Shared it via @AirAkshar and hope you have a good day ahead.
Thanks, Brian!

Half way through the post I was sure that I had to start using Buzzsumo. Thanks for the practical examples and case studies. Couldn’t have been more convincing. I’m going to start off by using the “find interview opportunities” technique.

First of all Lots of Love from India. Liked your buzz sumo guides very much. This tool shows the most shared content of a website on social media. But will it show the most viewed/popular pages of a website? If not, then which tool you recommend for this.

I really appreciate the post. I’ve been hearing about BuzzSumo for a while now. If I can be honest, I didn’t understand how it would help my blog at first, but now I’m starting to get the gist of it for content development. Another brilliant guide!

Great Article, however on the downside not everybody has a subscription and therefore wont be able to get these search results.
I also have a question; I am using SEM rush for my onpage SEO and was wondering how long (like how many days or weeks) would you recommend to wait for adjustments to reflect in the google search console.
The reason why I ask is because I noticed that when I first apply changes like on page or meta tags usually my ranking first drops and then bounces back within a few days. I am aware that my actions are probably faster then googles indexing. So, what is a good time frame.

Hello Brian,
I love this post, apart from how informative it was, I loved your use of infographics. This is actually the first post I’m reading on your blog but I absolutely loved it, the details, conversational style, etc. I hope to write like this someday.
Okay enough gushing and an actual comment on the blog post. I’ve been using Google keywords planner all this while and it’s not really getting me a lot of results because as you said, it doesn’t really generate long tail keywords. Now, that I understand how useful Buzzsumo can be, I’m going to try it out.
Thank you for this post.

I remember back when Buzzsumo was first launched. I thought that it was just another shiny product that is just not going to get any further development.

Fast forward 2 years, and I use it almost on a daily basis to come with new content ideas for my clients. Buzzsumo, SEMrush, and Ahrefs are one of the top tools that I use on a daily basis to deliver results for my clients.

And with this new blog post, you have opened my eyes to a completely new way of finding more content. Thanks for what you do.

Brian,
This guide was absolutely amazing. I found multiple chapters interesting for me, like how to find great performing content and which content types are generating traffic & links. Also, the Case Studies were a very interesting read, they show how things can be done right. The guide is very practical, no nonsense. Pure value. Thank you for putting your time and effort into this.
Regards,
Jan

Amazing post, Brian but I think you are the content marketing tool, who can create amazing and interesting content, that Audience can,t rid away without reading.

“Means” I learn lots of blogs related to this topic but never stay in touch with any content but whenever I type any keyword on the search result and found your blog content. I feel happy that I have found what I want.

Happy to see you with your next content with your new idea and strategy and good to see your video content in 2019.